FBI, Snipers & Occupy

Would you be shocked to learn that the FBI apparently knew that some organization, perhaps even a law enforcement agency or private security outfit, had contingency plans to assassinate peaceful protestors in a major American city — and did nothing to intervene?

Would you be surprised to learn that this intelligence comes not from a shadowy whistle-blower but from the FBI itself – specifically, from a document obtained from Houston FBI office last December, as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the Washington, DC-based Partnership for Civil Justice Fund?

To repeat: this comes from the FBI itself. The question, then, is: What did the FBI do about it?

The Plot

Remember the Occupy Movement? The peaceful crowds that camped out in the center of a number of cities in the fall of 2011, calling for some recognition by local, state and federal authorities that our democratic system was out of whack, controlled by corporate interests, and in need of immediate repair?

That movement swept the US beginning in mid-September 2011. When, in early October, the movement came to Houston, Texas, law enforcement officials and the city’s banking and oil industry executives freaked out perhaps even more so than they did in some other cities. The push-back took the form of violent assaults by police on Occupy activists, federal and local surveillance of people seen as organizers, infiltration by police provocateurs—and, as crazy as it sounds, some kind of plot to assassinate the “leaders” of this non-violent and leaderless movement.

But don’t take our word for it. Here’s what the document obtained from the Houston FBI, said:

An identified [DELETED] as of October planned to engage in sniper attacks against protestors (sic) in Houston, Texas if deemed necessary. An identified [DELETED] had received intelligence that indicated the protesters in New York and Seattle planned similar protests in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin, Texas. [DELETED] planned to gather intelligence against the leaders of the protest groups and obtain photographs, then formulate a plan to kill the leadership via suppressed sniper rifles. (Note: protests continued throughout the weekend with approximately 6000 persons in NYC. ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests have spread to about half of all states in the US, over a dozen European and Asian cities, including protests in Cleveland (10/6-8/11) at Willard Park which was initially attended by hundreds of protesters.)

Occupiers Astounded—But Not Entirely

Paul Kennedy, the National Lawyers Guild attorney in Houston who represented a number of Occupy Houston activists arrested during the protests, had not heard of the sniper plot, but said, “I find it hard to believe that such information would have been known to the FBI and that we would not have been told about it.” He then added darkly, “If it had been some right-wing group plotting such an action, something would have been done. But if it is something law enforcement was planning, then nothing would have been done. It might seem hard to believe that a law enforcement agency would do such a thing, but I wouldn’t put it past them.”

He adds, “The use of the phrase ‘if deemed necessary,’ sounds like it was some kind of official organization that was doing the planning.” In other words, the “identified [DELETED]” mentioned in the Houston FBI document may have been some other agency with jurisdiction in the area, which was calculatedly making plans to kill Occupy activists.

Kennedy knows first-hand the extent to which combined federal-state-local law enforcement forces in Houston were focused on disrupting and breaking up the Occupy action in that city. He represented seven people who were charged with felonies for a protest that attempted to block the operation of Houston’s port facility. That case fell apart when in the course of discovery, the prosecution disclosed that the Occupiers had been infiltrated by three undercover officers from the Austin Police department, who came up with the idea of using a device called a “sleeping dragon” — actually chains inside of PVC pipe — which are devilishly hard to cut through, for chaining protesters together blocking port access. The police provocateurs, Kennedy says, actually purchased the materials and constructed the “criminal instruments” themselves, supplying them to the protesters. As a result of this discovery, the judge tossed out the felony charges.

FBI Response

WhoWhatWhy contacted FBI headquarters in Washington, and asked about this document—which, despite its stunning revelation and despite PCFJ press releases, was (notwithstanding a few online mentions) generally ignored by mainstream and “alternative” press alike.

The agency confirmed that it is genuine and that it originated in the Houston FBI office. (The plot is also referenced in a second document obtained in PCJF’s FOIA response, in this case from the FBI’s Gainesville, Fla., office, which cites the Houston FBI as the source.) That second document actually suggests that the assassination plot, which never was activated, might still be operative should Occupy decisively re-emerge in the area. It states:

On 13 October 20111, writer sent via email an excerpt from the daily [DELETED] regarding FBI Houston’s [DELETED] to all IAs, SSRAs and SSA [DELETED] This [DELETED] identified the exploitation of the Occupy Movement by [LENGTHY DELETION] interested in developing a long-term plan to kill local Occupy leaders via sniper fire.

Asked why solid information about an assassination plot against American citizens exercising their Constitutional right to free speech and assembly never led to exposure of the plotters’ identity or an arrest—as happened with so many other terrorist schemes the agency has publicized—Paul Bresson, head of the FBI media office, offered a typically elliptical response:

The FOIA documents that you reference are redacted in several places pursuant to FOIA and privacy laws that govern the release of such information so therefore I am unable to help fill in the blanks that you are seeking. Exemptions are cited in each place where a redaction is made. As far as the question about the murder plot, I am unable to comment further, but rest assured if the FBI was aware of credible and specific information involving a murder plot, law enforcement would have responded with appropriate action.

Note that the privacy being “protected” in this instance (by a government that we now know has so little respect for our privacy) was of someone or some organization that was actively contemplating violating other people’s Constitutional rights— by murdering them. That should leave us less than confident about Bresson’s assertion that law enforcement would have responded appropriately to a “credible” threat.

Houston Cops Not Warned?

The Houston FBI office stonewalled our requests for information about the sniper-rifle assassination plot and why nobody was ever arrested for planning to kill demonstrators. Meanwhile, the Houston Police, who had the job of controlling the demonstrations, and of maintaining order and public safety, displayed remarkably little interest in the plot: “We haven’t heard about it,” said Keith Smith, a public affairs officer for the department, who told us he inquired about the matter with senior department officials.

Asked whether he was concerned that, if what he was saying was correct, it meant the FBI had not warned local police about a possible terrorist act being planned in his city, he said, “No. You’d have to ask the Houston FBI about that.”

Craft International Again

Sniper action by law enforcement officials in Texas would not be anything new. Last October, a border patrol officer with the Texas Department of Public Safety, riding in a helicopter, used a sniper rifle to fire at a fast-moving pickup truck carrying nine illegal immigrants into the state from Mexico, killing two and wounding a third, and causing the vehicle to crash and overturn. It turns out that Border Patrol agents, like a number of Texas law enforcement organizations, had been receiving special sniper training from a Dallas-based mercenary-for-hire organization called Craft International LLC. It seems likely that Houston Police have also received such training, possibly from Craft, which has a contract for such law-enforcement training funded by the US Department of Homeland Security.

Efforts to obtain comment from Craft International have been unsuccessful, but the company’s website features photos of Craft instructors training law enforcement officers in sniper rifle use (the company was founded in 2009 by Chris Kyle, a celebrated Navy SEAL sniper who last year was slain by a combat veteran he had accompanied to a shooting range). A number of men wearing Craft-issued clothing and gear, and bearing the company’s distinctive skull logo, were spotted around the finish line of the April Boston Marathon, both before and after the bombing. Some were wearing large black backpacks with markings resembling what was seen on an exploded backpack image released by the FBI.(For more on the backpacks that allegedly contained the bombs, see this piece we did in May.)

An Activist Responds

Remington Alessi, an Occupy Houston activist who played a prominent role during the Occupy events, was one of the seven defendants whose felony charge was dropped because of police entrapment. He says of the sniper plot information, which first came to light last December as one of hundreds of pages of FBI files obtained by PCJF, “We have speculated heavily about it. The ‘if deemed necessary’ phrase seems to indicate it was an organization. It could have been the police or a private security group.”

Alessi, who hails from a law-enforcement family and who ran last year for sheriff of Houston’s Harris County on the Texas Green Party ticket, garnering 22,000 votes, agrees with attorney Kennedy that the plotters were not from some right-wing organization. “If it had been that, the FBI would have acted on it,” he agrees. “I believe the sniper attack was one strategy being discussed for dealing with the occupation.” He adds:

I assume I would have been one of the targets, because I led a few of the protest actions, and I hosted an Occupy show on KPFT. I wish I could say I’m surprised that this was seriously discussed, but remember, this is the same federal government that murdered (Black Panther Party leader) Fred Hampton. We have a government that traditionally murders people who are threats. I guess being a target is sort of an honor.

There, Alessi is referring to evidence made public in the Church Committee hearings of the 1970s which revealed that the FBI was orchestrating local police attacks (in Chicago, San Francisco and New York) on Panther leaders. (For more on that, see this, starting at p. 185, esp. pp. 220-223; also see this .)

Alessi suspects that the assassination plot cited in the FBI memo was

probably developed in the Houston Fusion Center (where federal, state and local intelligence people work hand-in-glove). During our trial we learned that they were all over our stuff, tracking Twitter feeds etc. It seems to me that based on the access they were getting they were using what we now know as the NSA’s PRISM program.

He notes, correctly, that in documents obtained from the FBI and Homeland Security by the PCJF’s FOIA search, the Occupy Movement is classed as a “terrorist” activity.

Ironically, while the Occupy Movement was actually peaceful, the FBI, at best, was simply standing aside while some organization plotted to assassinate the movement’s prominent activists.

The FBI’s stonewalling response to inquiries about this story, and the agency’s evident failure to take any action regarding a known deadly threat to Occupy protesters in Houston, will likely make protesters at future demonstrations look differently at the sniper-rifle equipped law-enforcement personnel often seen on rooftops during such events. What are they there for? Who are the threats they are looking for and potentially targeting? Who are they protecting? And are they using “suppressed” sniper rifles? Would this indicate they have no plans to take responsibility for any shots silently fired? Or that they plan to frame someone else?

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Yes, our govt is too big. Too high-handed…BLM, IRS, NSA. But on this one thing, this one thing, I am glad to hear they had the baIls to at least plan to take them out. Something was wrong with Occupy. Dead wrong.

I imagine, had this plan been carried out, that the snipers would have taken out the leaders as designated and also some of the cops, so the media would have a circus about the pitched gun battle between the violent demonstrators and the police.;-})

As a former Marine primary marksmanship instructor, I can tell you that a suppressor on a sniper rifle is NOT to reduce sound, but to reduce muzzle flash. Muzzle flash reduction is important, especially at night, because you are not blinded by the light. No sniper that I’m aware of uses a silencer as it seriously affects accuracy. Noise is not a concern as the shot is coming from 750+ yards away and the report would be very difficult to place aurally.

So if a citizen writes up a plan to assassinate, say a business CEO, or a politician, but does not act on it, then that document falls into the hands of the police. What happens to that person? They would certainly be kidnapped and detained under the new edicts. Likely their guns would be seized and they would be barred from ever having firearms again.

So what consequences have the creators of the FBI plot received? Have they been detained? Have their firearms been seized? Or are they above the law that applies to everyone else not in the current regime?

meanwhile the Court in Oakland awarded the trash big money for being put out of their protest site—

I would love to see more than just second hand accounts– would like to be able to source what you say– I followed a link to get here and am no more satisfied with the narrative than I was before I came here

Texas is one of the few states still willing to fight for the Constitution. This was clearly an attempt to provoke the rest of the country to turn against Texas. This was an attempt to frame Texas and to start the civil war that the communist infiltrators want. Zimmerman is another cog in that machine that has been put in motion.

Texas is an embarrassment and a disgrace. Any state that elects Rick Perry successive times after W.Bush (can you say dumb and dumber?) not to mention their bazzackwards laws and ignorant ways of thinking, etc, etc

“In fact, Silicon Valley, as important as it is to California, only
amounts to 10.4 percent of the Golden State’s economy while employing 6
percent of Californians. The mining industry in Texas, of which oil and
gas extraction are the main part, generated 9.8 percent of Texas’ GDP in
2012 significantly less than manufacturing’s share of 14.5 percent—the
Lone Star State’s economy is more diversified than its critics contend.”

Yeah, maybe if Silicon Valley (which is driving the real progress in America and the world (progress – I forgot you hate that word)) were the only industry in California. You forgot Hollywood, agriculture, many, many others… and the past-it’s prime oil industry there too. Ooops.

Exactly, yet they’re absolutely failing in comparison to Texas. All of those resources and they are completely losing their asses. You’ve done a good job of proving my point. Ooops, indeed. You really aren’t good at reading.

“If, as the critics opine, Texas is adding jobs simply because it is
adding people, then the ratio of jobs added to population increased
ought to be roughly the same there as in the U.S. as a whole. The data
shows the opposite. Texas added one new job for every three people from
2000 to 2013, while the nation added one job for every seven people,
meaning that Texas outperformed the U.S. job creation rate by more than
two-to-one. In the same period, California added one job for every 11
new residents.”

Well I’m glad you’re happy in the ass pit of america. TX is the last place I’d ever go to. California is the best for a variety of reasons. I know it’s not charitable, but, I really can’t stand you fuking rednecks..

Communist infiltrators…Hahaha what a joke. Socialists are the least of your worries, in fact a good dose of socialism is exactly what the US needs if it wants to return from the brink of total financial collapse, I see the Mcarthy era “kill the commies” cartoon rhetoric is still working its magic, and a good number of Americans are completely hypnotised….

This is really funny. I wrote a piece trashing Naomi for her lazy, idle, fact-free speculation that Edward Snowden might be a double agent, still working for the CIA or NSA. My headline was, tongue firmly in cheek, a question asking “Is Naomi Wolf Working for the NSA” (www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/1806). I did thoughtfully note that I didn’t really think she was, just that she was a shameless publicity seeker, lazily coming up with a provocative idea based upon no facts, that slandered a brave whistleblower.

Here, however, we see what a cheap piece of trash Wolf really is, writting another baseless, fact-free libel, this time of me.

In these times, when the government’s spy and propaganda machines have such power and such limitless venality to try to destroy character and movements, to label people as agents of the state is particularly dangerous and shameless, and Wolf, here in the WhoWhatWhy comments, has done just that.

If she is angry at being criticized by me for her cheap shot at Snowden, she should come up with some solid evidence for her having raised suspicions about him. Instead, she’s attacked me for criticize her, but again, only by using the same kind of tactic — the kind of cheap gossip that you’d expect of one of those pre-teen alpha girl bullies.

I should add that in the weeks since she wrote her libelous screed against Snowden, as he has endured life stuck in limbo in a Moscow airport transit hall, with the US pulling out all stops to intimidate other countries from granting him asylum, Wolf has never deigned to retract her baseless, fact-challenged attack on him. Another sign of a writer without a shred of principle.

I quit trusting the Government in any way during the Vietnam war when I saw government workers sons getting exemptions while my friends without political pull being blown apart. The so called “silent majority” lost the respect of the people. Now those same people who fought the useless Vietnam war as cheering the waste of lives in some stupid countries. Then we find out the FBI thinks killing the American political opposition is within their mission? A new government is needed and fast. I am willing to die for my country, but not in some useless contrived government conflict. I will perhaps die in the street, standing up for what is right and for what the founders who promised they would risk their lives, sacred honor and fortunes to give the future generations.

Sadly, not true. I currently sit on a local selective service board, which would review draft exemptions/ applications in the event that the draft was ever reenacted. We meet periodically for training and to hear mock cases. These boards are generally stocked with older, more conservative, often very pro military folks. In our rehearsals, even the most deserving of cases are frequently denied, often in a way that leaves no avenue for appeal. In the event of a draft, people may be dismayed to find out how limited their options are. Also, the next draft will not just young people, it will include highly trained specialists (engineers, surgeons, nurses, etc.) that are needed.

I’m disheartened to hear your tale however I’m going to go out on a limb and say they better not dare instate a draft for any war except a direct attack on the USA because alot of us exercise our 2nd Amendment rights and they can come get us at a high attrition rate. And furthermore I have to add that if things go as they are atm then why would the military want a group of neo-hippies with tattoos on their faces, earlobes stretched down to their chins, and a general dislike for any military action and all military personnel. Talk about fragging, they’d probably give away their positions because they believe the enemy deserves to win over the tyrannical fascist capitalist pig dog oppressor state. I wouldn’t want to be in a unit with that!

Trump got 5 deferments. Bush got into the national guard. My brother
couldn’t afford to work and carry a full load so he was drafted. He then
enlisted in the Army and was told he would not go to Vietnam if he did.
The ink wasn’t even dry when they shipped him to Nam. Same old story.
Rich man’s war, poor man’s fight.

Trump got 5 deferments. Bush got into the National Guard. My brother couldn’t afford to work and carry a full load so he was drafted. He then enlisted in the Army and was told he would not go to Vietnam if he did. The ink wasn’t even dry when they shipped him to Nam. Same old story. Rich man’s war, poor man’s fight.

In the interests of accuracy, I did not represent any of the seven protesters charged with felonies. Greg Gladden did the bulk of the heavy lifting and discovered that officers with the Austin Police Department had infiltrated Occupy Austin.

I represented one of the protesters charged with a misdemeanor at the Occupy the Port protest and I represented some of the protesters charged with violating city ordinances regarding camping in public parks.

Sorry ’bout that Paul. You were talking about the seven protesters in the case who were charged with felonies in the same breath that you were saying you were involved in that case, and I made the assumption you were the attorney. Thanks for the correction.

Why isn’t MSNBC or CNN or FOX covering this. If this is real then its worthy of further research.

OWS has a terrorist movement within the peaceful protestors and Anonymous hackers also infest the group so they must be monitored and labeled as terrorists. About 15% to 20% of them are violent plus the rabid far left terrorist supporting lunatic millionaires bailout the FELONS from jail so they can commit more terrorist acts. Hell that’s in this article so don’t deny it and they are terrorists.

OWS tried to destroy a bridge connecting Ohio and Kentucky

OWS fired shots at the White House

OWS has many racists

OWS has many Anti-Semitic loons

OWS has sexist perverts

OWS has known rapists and OWS conspires to protect rapists

OWS has known drug dealers

OWS tried to kill a NYC policeman then they tried to stop the ambulance from leaving.

OWS isn’t misunderstood. We all know terrorism when we see it and read it.

OWS tried to destroy businesses

OWS has hardly any blacks and they shout racist remarks. All white liberals.

The NSA officers swear to protect the US Constitution. That’s their Oath. And the only one following that Oath at the moment seems to be Snowden. Rest of them involved in PRISM willingly break 4th Amendment, therefore break their Oath as well. The real traitors are those breaking constitution and having conspiracy and secrecy to break it. And the ones revealing that secretive anti-Constitution actions are the true patriots. Wouldn’t you agree?

Furthermore, the US and its multinational war and prison industry are the largest terrorists in existence. They have been for over 50 years. They are responsible for millions of lives being slaughtered and mutilated, over the past 50 years, and entire regions scorched and fearful to the bone. It’s what they want. Inducing new generations of rebels who have justification in their hearts to retaliate, as their lands, friends, and families continually feel the murderous brunt of US policy: it’s great for business. What could be more profitable to industries of war? They ensure their growth and enrichment thanks to involuntary funding (taxation), with the inextricable power it brings to a small group of people who can wield nearly unlimited direction over an entire body of people’s labor and choice. It’s all under the laughable ruse of a catch-all word “democracy”: an urban myth for US citizens who don’t realize that there are infinite flavors and variations of a “democratic process” beyond this current structure of mob rule and oligarchical representation.

My only argument here will be that “patriotism” is part of the problem. Nationalism is blinding, as one begins to worship words and decrees in place of thinking critically and conscientiously. But, sure, yes, in the context of the US Constitution, it is patriotic to value it above the orders of thugs. Humans with fancy suits and badges are not above a person with a conscience.

Unfortunately, that which is written into policy and various law — such as this well-connected surveillance industry — need only abide by the laws that are written to specifically allow it, under 100+ years of precedence to an interpretation of the Fourth. As Adams feared, the omission of explicit rights in the Constitution may lead to a sense of implicit oppression in all other aspects unstated, among those in power. Currently, laws are written to allow anything and everything to be captured under an (intentional) loophole in this digital era where all traffic of the internet’s backbone can, at some point, be routed through a foreign server, and thus be considered a target. Of course, since the Patriot Act, in most cases they do not even need that pretense. Literally anything is an option with the NSA.

The Constitution is not and will not be enough to save the people from this tyranny. Truth and the public are the enemies to this system. We must always champion purveyors of conscience and stay in solidarity with those who would dare to spread the truth and long for freedom.

We will leave this comment for now, but in future, please refrain from personal conversation with other commenters and follow our guidelines which ask that you stay on topic and offer opinion and/or fact relating to that article.

Why we got dictator Trump here. Perhaps you could learn something by researching the Constitution and why our founding fathers wrote those cumbersome bill of rights into it. Freedom of dissent is our sincerest form of patriotism.

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a
government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not
hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Geeze, Sounds like your the guy that would be more than happy to pull the trigger. I was under the impression that one of OWS ‘s main objective was bringing light to the banking shenanagins and the unequality of our justice system. “They shout racist remarks”. Your funny. I think your confusing them with what transpired with the fascist baggers and neo-cons at their corporately funded get togethers. And as far as the, “and everyone knows it” I think that may be true in your small little mind but untrue as far as the general public is concerned. Happy 4th as meaningless as your type have made it.

Remember Occupy? That’s what an attempted socialist revolution looks like when the leaders are disorganized and still just daydreaming about setting up a socialist heaven. Any peacefulness of the Occupy leaders was merely a tactic to get people to let their guard down against socialism. It was also a pragmatic tactic given their relative weakness.
In fact, the socialist expects government to do her dirty work for her. At bottom she’s an aggressive, slippery thug. So, let’s not become excited by the ironic prospect of a few socialists being killed by a government less tyrannical than that craved by socialists. Better, instead, to make plans now to form your own impromptu, private defense squad for the next time that socialists attempt to impose their religion. Probably the FBI won’t like that, however. Standing up like men to criminals such as socialists is contrary to the conservative paternalism that characterizes the FBI’s mission. And they won’t be able to cope maturely with the unpaid competition that could make the FBI obsolete.

Check out Norway, Sweden and Finland. People live much better than we do there, have much better schools, don’t have to worry about going bust when they get sick, and have secure retirements. They get four weeks plus paid vacation, and that’s in the summer when they can enjoy it, and also paid maternity/paternity leave when they have a kid, plus paid leave to stay home and care for a sick family member. Do you get that?

Did I mention free college tuition, at least in Finland? (I don’t know about Norway and Sweden on that.

Meanwhile, their countries actually make stuff that people around the world admire and buy, so their countries, while paying higher wages than our sweat shops, operate at surpluses instead of deficits.

They also ski the crap out of our teams in the winter olympics.

Next time you want to call socialists sissies, go punch a Swede or a Finn.

Remember the Vikings?

You might also study a little US history, and see the courageous stands socialists took in fighting for things like unions, minimum wage, social security, and child labor laws. Ignorant wusses like this poster will probably collect their social security checks while dissing the socialist heroes who won that program for them.

LOL, THE COST OF LIVING IN SOCIALIST COUNTRIES IS MUCH HIGHER. FOOD, GAS, AUTOS, HOMES AND TAXES ARE ALL MUCH MUCH HIGHER. Hope you could read that because I’m shouting the facts because you are totally clueless.

I lived in Sweden for 4 years and my company paid me the same I earned in the USA ($38,500). After taxes and the cost of living I barely saved money each month, usually $12 to $25. Here in the USA, I saved $78 a month to $110 so don’t tell us things are better. Today I earn far more but my first job out of college required me to live overseas. Great country, fine women but it costs alot!!!!

Socialism suxs. BTW, the US government pays for 75% of college tuition already, your portion goes up because of all of the rabid greedy professors who pretend they are worth it but the graduation rate rarely goes up. Over paid loons that’s what most colleges employ. We pay more for tuition and books as costs increase.

Maybe its time for everyone to focus on colleges and university incomes. We can make a difference, in fact if you think CEO’s are overpaid, research college pay.

bravo, one example fro, one idividual. guess we can wrap this up now. THE USSA IS ALREADY a socialist country you fools, at least for the ultra wealthy, the BOA’s too big to fail and for the scum that think the Projects are long-term housing. fools. anyone talking about change who does not own a real rifle, pistol, maintain the knowledge and willimgness to effectively use those tools against whatever “group”, like the fbi sactioned hit squad and the fbi agents who knew are the real problem. keep voting, paying taxes to possibly fund your own murder or prison sentence. vote from the rooftops or shit up. and learn to use tor and PGP as those 2 pieces of software are part of the 21st century arsenal. …and remember, exhale and squeeze I do believe we are already there

So, to get this straight, you brought an american salary over to a more expensive country and now you are crying about not being able to save money while you were there? You should have spent that last $12-$25 buying those fine women drinks and enjoying the experience because that sure as hell isn’t a career move, smh. Keep blaming other people for your poor decisions.

We will leave this comment for now, but in future could you please stay on topic and offer your opinions and or substantiated facts (ref. guidelines) rather than engaging in direct conversation with other commenters. There are online vehicles for that, this is not one of them.

The forced socialist model is burning as it is crumbling down. It was somewhat sustainable as long as the rest of the world was more ignorant and we had the technological advantage. The reason our countries up here may seem better to some for this short while is simply because you have allowed people to set your country on a total destruction course and we still reap the benefits of child labour in Asia and elsewhere, but be assured it is not sustainable.

BMW: average 30 hour work week with full social package including 1 month+ vacation a year. Owned by a state. Profitabe. GM: average 40 hour work week with very poor social package compared to BMW. 1-2 weeks vacation a year. Private ownership for the most part. Bankrupt.

There is no such thing as a “free market” where collective force (government) is used to uphold corporatism. It seems very few people care to understand what a (real) “free market” is. The US’s market is one of the most regulated, least free markets in existence.

GM wasn’t privately owned. It ran in the corporatist framework as a heavily-regulated public corporation. Maybe if it had been “privately owned,” its hierarchy would’ve been set to actually care more about creating a sustainable entity instead of plundering bag-holders of worthless shares. Then it went bankrupt.

Maybe the automaker that gives 200 day vacations would be more successful. Maybe it would fail. Maybe one that gives 14 days and special incentive-based compensation would be more successful. Maybe it wouldn’t. It usually depends on who’s leading and for which reasons. Success can’t be guaranteed nor should it be dictated through force. Likewise, that which a worker does should not be dictated through force; everyone must be free to collectivize with others and associate as they see fit, outside the context of government mandates.

Focusing on anecdotal positives within various systems leads to conflation. It leads to false inferences. It tends to lead down a path where simple human rights become trampled upon through encouraging the increase of governmental authority under the pretense of “doing good.” Policies of total global exploitation later, we see where this path leads. As I’m sure you know, one can find anecdotal positives within any system, no matter how abusive it is.

Humanitarianism is pretty simple. Collective force should only have the power to enforce a basic decree of protecting an individual’s sovereignty — especially from the dictation and violence of a state. Everything else can becomes the jurisdiction of voluntaryist frameworks.

My point is as follows: BMW is much, much more regulated with workforce enjoying less hours of work and much better pay and social care producing better goods than GM. Of course, there is no ‘pure free market’ anywhere in the world and there have never been as politicians will always interfere. From that stand point free market is a myth as an equal people – just not possible to have in the real world.

Your argumentation reminds me a little bit argumentation of some communists I know. They claim what was in USSR or China, North Korea, Cuba, etc. isn’t/wasn’t real communism because people weren’t really equal. They don’t understand that’s the whole point – you can’t have everybody equal, that’s a myth, utopia. The same you Sir, can’t have a free market, it’s a myth, utopia. There will be always someone interfering. Politicians or unfair businesses influencing politicians. The economy doesn’t function as an isolated phenomenon. It functions in the society, democratic process, in the world of politics. So yeah, I agree it would be just fantastic to live in the world with utterly free markets, but in the real world this never happens. The same way somehow the myth of equality is never materialized.

Going back to BMW example, my point was that BMW functions in much, much more regulated environment, has been owned by a local government of Bavaria for years, and still they are much better off, seliing much better products, than many competitors that enjoy much freer economic realities.

My point is that it doesn’t really matter as much as you think it does.

You are the one, respectfully, failing to see a larger picture in light of the numerous and varying systems of governance since the dawn of humanity.

Intellectual constructs of humanitarianism, such as some ideals of [freedom, free association, and free trade] are no less “myths” or “utopias,” as you say, than are the frameworks of governments that are occasionally constructed in the supposed honor of these ideas so too “myths” and “utopias.” To believe in, and therefore abide by, any one particular framework or constitution is every bit an ideologically-driven pursuit into social “myth.”

It’s defeatist and magical thinking on anyone’s part to not bear witness to the fact that frameworks can be changed and, nay, have been changed since the beginning of human groups. The defeatist believes we exist within an isolated paradigm to the exclusion of new forms of progression.

Reality, not utopia, has it that the greatest human struggles in the plight of people seeking this visceral sense of “freedom” have resulted in major reforms and in new systems. The greatest humanitarian pursuits, over the course of countless centuries, have always been struggles of transformation against the odds of having no precedence and against people, such as yourself, who have been indoctrinated into a very limited perception of a slice of culture, driven so as to chastise the pursuit of humanitarians as being “mythological”, fanciful, radical, idealistic, and utopic: fantasies of slaves.

To understand the continual course of change along human history is to understand the comparatively trite context of a box into which we are currently thrown and temporarily reside.

Your point about BMW vs. GM would be anecdotal if it was even a good one, which it really wasn’t. It distorts many of the realities behind the downfall of GM, which was a heavily-regulated public corporation plundering its coffers with a leadership failing to compete against the freer corporate structure of competitors such as Toyota. It also makes false inferences about government’s role in labor in lieu of greater examples of government interring with the economy, on a micro and macro level, under the pretense of “protection”, consequently leading into dependency and total economic disaster. These arguments remind me of people who are still heavily locked into partisanship, who like to view the world through selective filtering. Oligarchs of the world rely heavily on partisans to play this game of false dichotomies. It is every bit as artificial and utopic to believe that doing the same thing within corpratism, back and forth, will lead to better results. Global exploitation, wars and deadly campaigns of leisure, corporate dominance, and an ever-growing military-surveillance state later, we see the results of that pendulum mentality. BMW, I’m sure, may be good. It may be. It is not good *because* of government though. It is likely good due to an internal structure that could stand every bit alone on its own ideals.

Nevertheless, corporatism continues to be a scourge upon humanity. The US Constitution simply wasn’t even close to strong enough in language to protect people and the world from the near limitless reach of Congress.

My point is that it really *does* matter more than you may, apparently, ever understand.

and they were occupied by germany and soviets in the past and they maintain minimal national security..now they are on the verge of bankruptcy.. I been there..not all is rosie…pick a different point in time, you have a different story line!

Bollocks. All countries in Europe have been taken over at one point or other, usually not very long. Ans mostly a long time ago.There are a lot of countries and they all share land borders. Having been violated by a larger, aggressive, corrupt country at some point in time is no badge of dis honour.
As for economically less than rosie, america is completely and utterly bankrupt. It’s dollar has been completely debased, as it doesn’t actually manufacture anything of note, except war machinery.
It is kept afloat only by threat of force, keeping oil traded in american dollars in the middle east. AKA the petrodollar.
The fact that you once travelled in northern Europe is irrelevant.
The whole world is in economic decline as a direct result of the neo liberal policies that the US and UK have enforced by various means all over the world.
We can now, with the evidence of ever widening income equality and as of the 2008 GFC, declare with out hesitation, that these policies have been a complete failure.

No, no, no, DR. You’ve got capitalism and socialism all mixed up again. Of course, this isn’t too surprising considering the industrial and financial masters worked very hard and contributed lots of money to get critical thinking skills removed from the public education curriculum back in the late 1800s.

Of course, you could reclaim those skills and rejoin the human race if you wished. They are a natural part of who we are, and it takes a whole lot of energy and effort to suppress and repress them. You’d also save a whole lot of money on therapy and anti-psychotic drugs.

I am opposed to socialism, corporatism, and any flavor of fascism that you can name. Only simpletons encourage the government and corporate law having more power over everyone’s labor and bodies. The US government, if it is to exist, should have an extremely limited role of upholding basic freedom of association with no means of forcing involuntary funding (i.e. the indentured servitude of taxation) and that’s about it. Put the economic power of people back into their own individual hands.

The rest will sort itself out through natural business, adaptive NGOs, basic social constructs, and voluntaryist humanitarian projects built by people, for people. They key word is voluntary. Anything beyond a limited government leads to the continual erosion of human rights. Bloodthirsty actors will always try to enrich themselves and feed from a cess pool of funding and grow their power that is only made feasible through taxation. It leads to the inevitability of allowing consolidated interests to begin threatening peaceful people with the threat of caging, death, and economic persecution.

Corporate law should never trump a human’s body. Though, solely because of government, artificial entities are granted the use of collective force to exploit and crush people and natural business competition. Free trade and association doesn’t exist under corporatism, quite obviously. Forced, guaranteed revenue streams ensure that this will always be the case: collective force will be harnessed by inhumane entities.

To conscientiously object is to not fund systemic failure. To not fund systemic failure is to subject oneself to further tyranny. It’s a long path.

KI. Absolute libertarian, tin foil hat wearing free market fairy believing, B grade novelist Ayn Rand worshipping hogwash.
One only has to look at failed states with collapsed governments to see what free market fantasy looks like. It looks like the third world. The US secret services and military are seriously bloated. the rest, underfunded. Civilisation needs democratic government. Democratic being the operative word. You see, it’s quite simple, you all put a bit of money in the hat, depending on how much you have profited from the system that allows the country to function.
That money goes back into the system to keep it running.
As we all know, economies of scale mean you get more bang for your buck when you pool resources and buy in bulk.
Civilised peoples care for and educate their people and especially those that are struggling. In fact every dollar spent on education and health in early life returns many times that investment latter. The education system is the means by which the collective knowledge of the human race is stored, built upon and passed on to the next generation.
Any one who thinks that they alone built their success, is a consummate idiot, with no awareness of the greater reality of evolution of human civilisation and their tiny, insignificant role in the face of that.
This is all well known, it’s common sense, yet the Koch brothers, and there like, funded propaganda “think tanks” have done such a nut job on the American populace that mindless drones like KI here can be found everywhere defending their right to be further bent over the bench by the out of control corporate oligarchy.
Pure idiocy, displaying an incredible lack of common sense, and severe brainwashing.

So everyone in the socialist parties in Europe (and they all have them are criminals? Moderator, please don’t delete this. I understand your rule but questions like this need to be addressed to these people or your just a site for spreading propagander with no option for rebuttal.

You’re selling old snake oil, Cumpa’. The Red Menace went out with hats for men. I suspect that to you, any form of government is Socialism. The funny thing is that your point of view tends to be programmed and championed by the people all three branches of government are working for.

“In fact, the socialist expects government to do her dirty work for her”.

Looks to me like it’s the corporate and financial interests the government is doing the dirty work for, now don’t it, Paesan? But I’m sure they can make room for one more he-man like you who’s ready to defend the Fatherland.

Great article. One possible interpretation of the redacted FBI memo referring to snipers, is that the FBI learned of a group that, as the memo says, wanted to exploit Occupy, via murder of some of its “leaders”. How would murdering Occupy organizers work as exploitation of Occupy? One possibility is that this group “simply” wanted to take advantage of the gatherings of Occupy people as opportunities to kill some of the organizers more easily than could be done by tracking them down individually, and in the process to make a high-profile anti-Occupy statement. Take a look at page 68 of the declassified files released to PCJF, at http://www.justiceonline.org/commentary/fbi-files-ows.html (do a search for the word “exploitation”), which seems to say something similar:

“During the 11 October 2011 intelligence meeting, writer__advised EM of the occupy venues and further advised they may provide an outlet for a lone offender exploiting the movement for reasons associated with general government dissatisfaction.”

And/or, this “assassination group” may have hoped to incite destructive riots by some Occupiers when they saw their friends being killed around them, in an attempt to discredit Occupy to show them as “not so peaceful after all”. If this group’s murder plans were to have been carried out, it’s possible the group had plans to use shooters who were genuinely anti-Occupy, but not necessarily linked to the group itself, to try to prevent connections being made to that group. Of course this doesn’t sound like a foolproof plan, but that doesn’t mean some group didn’t make such plans anyway–the FBI memo directly states that such a group did in fact make some kind of plans. It’s also important to note that it can’t be assumed that the FBI did nothing about this plot–the murders didn’t happen, so maybe the FBI had something to do with preventing them. Documentation on that wouldn’t be released by any FOIA for some time to come, in order to keep methods, sources, etc. secret.

Great article, but one question most people are failing to ask is the follow the money question. Who is it that has the most to lose in the Occupy movement? The answer is very clear, the Federal Reserve and its tentacled cohorts who are actively robbing Americans blind by stealing the property of America. We’ve been detailing this conspiracy for about 5 years now and have proof that the FED, IRS, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Congress, Senate, The Judges around the country, Insurance companies, the Post Office, and almost all large offshore Banks, and the SEC are all in on this scam to steal the property of private citizens and transfer these rights to the Central Bank. This is a minimum of 16 trillion dollar scam but there are estimates that with all of the multifaceted angles that it could be as high as 300 trillion dollars! If you aren’t familiar with how the securitization scam is working you need to find out before they work it on you. One house we know of was “sold” on wall street 600 times in one year. If all of these were insured against failure and the home was only valued at 100,000, by the time the banks get their 9 times the value for the loan = 900,000, then each loan was insured for 100,000 and then multiply it all by 600, you can easily see how the FED could be manipulating the market by 540 million on one home!!! This is happening folks. You had better start studying this. Roy Blizzard III Homeowners Against Mortgage Servicing Fraud on Facebook

Wow. So that’s how the housing market “Recovered”. I knew it had to be a fake recovery since all our jobs were off-shored to China and India and you have to have a job to get a house loan.

Also I read about new listings not being recorded in the MLS system, to make it appear demand was strong. Also, it was rumoured that banks were bulldozing many of their foreclosures in a bid to create an artificial shortage of housing for their better returning units. All in the face of massive homelessness!

George W Bush prosecuted many wallstreet crooks and cleaned up CLINTON’s MESS.

Obama took wallstreet money and so far hardly anyone has faced justice yet someone sued to get emails from Bank of America. Those emails prove they knew they were making bad loans and pushing them on the gov. Blame dems and the gop for writing dumb laws and blame Obama because he’s done nothing major. All talk and zero follow through. Perhaps Bill Maher is right, Obama isn’t black enough???

Both parties are to blame for everything that is happening in this country right now. This is bigger than Reps vs Dems. The whole system is xxxx. If you believe one party has your best interests in mind, while the other is evil, you are part of the problem. They are the same beast.

Please review our guidelines and in future refrain from the expletives; otherwise we will be compelled to delete your entire comment which in this instance – however opinion driven it is – should be allowed to stand.

Sounds like Houston needs to get ready for a false flag set up for the 4th if July- this us totally crazy that it is allowed to go on- charges need to b brought by any police snipers or FBI involved- this is crap

Thanks for writing the article “FBI Knew of
Plot to Execute Occupy Activists but Did Nothing.” You asked all the
same questions I had been asking in my posts. I searched the documents
the day the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund issued them. I placed the
word “Cleveland” in the search and came upon page 61 and the memo about
the possible use of sniper rifles to kill the leaders. I looked up
Cleveland because some fellow Food Not Bombs volunteers had been
targeted by the FBI at Occupy Cleveland in a bombing plot.

I had
a unusual role in Occupy as the Food Not Bombs toll free number rings
to my cell phone and I had calls from all across the world about the
logistics of our kitchens. As a result I would learn of nationwide
patterns against Occupy. I helped provide food at Occupy Wall Street,
Occupy Freedom Plaza and Occupy McPherson Park as well as many other
Occupations but my focus was in Washington DC because I had been helping
organize that action for months before Ad Busters announced Occupy Wall
Street. I was stopped by the police about every third day starting on
September 17th. At one point I was arrested on a 1983 warrant for
posting a flyer against the war on El Salvador.

So again just
who do they believe is the leadership and why didn’t the FBI tell those
of us that may have been considered the leaders told? As are we still on
some list and if so how effective does our protesting need to be to be
killed?

Thanks so much once again. Finally some one asked the questions that have bothered me since December.

For one, some of the Southern states including Alabama and Georgia have laws dating back to the civil rights era that say you cannot be legally armed while at any kind of political protest or demonstration – not even if both the protest and the arms bearing is completely legal. In other words, you can have your first amendment rights, your second amendment rights (with carry permits easy to get in all the Southern states) but not both at once.

These documents are grounds to challenge those laws in court as being a violation of civil rights.

At OccupyTucson we had as many as six guns in camp at any one time – and law enforcement knew there were at least some. We had zero incidents of police abuse or violence, in stark contrast to most other camps.

Hahahahahahahaha. Amazing what you can do with photoshop these days, isn’t it? Why would the FBI shoot protestors? Their long time default method is to infiltrate provacateurs, start a violent plot and arrest the “conspiracy” members. End of problem. If the leaders hole up someplace, burn it down ala Waco.

You have to get real. Back in the nasty old ’60’s when I was a member of YAF, a conservative student group, I found the the people closest to us were in SDS. What endangers you, endangers us. Please never confuse people who wear conservative suits Like Bush, Cheney and Rove with Conservatives. We are the heirs to Barry Goldwater and Bill Buckley.

The implication in the released documents isn’t that the FBI might have been planning to shoot protesters, but that the FBI was told of a group that had such plans, and yet the FBI didn’t warn anyone involved in Occupy that this was the case. It’s possible the FBI took care of the problem, and that the documentation for that isn’t something subject to the FOIA, but who’s to know because the FBI continues to stonewall on this?

The other document, from the Gainesville, Fla. FBI office, begins on page 68 of the same batch of files mentioned two notes down from this one.

I should also note that I misread the initial document and assumed that the plot only involved leaders of Occupy Houston, but a careful re-reading makes it clear that whatever organization was doing the plotting was contemplating assassinating leaders of Occupy actions in Houston, Austin, San Antonio and Dallas. That widens the possible suspects, and, if that list includes law envorcement authorities, it could include the four cities’ police departments, as well as the state’s Texas State Police.

Funny, but I cannot find any reference to the FBI doc on the organization’s website that requested the document–
Partnership for Civil Justice. This raises questions about the credibility of Lindorff and this website.

Oh for christ’s sake. It’s a difficult site to navigate, but it’s all there. You could have used the search window for “FBI documents” . Not only that, but I reported that in my call to the FBI in Washington, they confirmed the veracity of the two documents in question, and I quoted them verbatim from their email to me. But since you’re so suspicious, go to: http://www.justiceonline.org/z-test/fbi-files-ows-1.html

Then go to item number five. When you get the docs, scroll down to page 61. If that leaves you still suspicious, you’re on your own.

Glad you finally have the documents, Dave. Good reporting. Too bad you never had documents confirming depleted uranium in nearly all US weapons. Maybe that’s because they d not exist, despite the facile claims of your source.

The evidence is that Occupy movement activists were peaceful. Even when being brutally arrested and assaulted. The violence we saw, for example inside the National Science Museum in Washington, was discovered to have been precipitated by government provocateurs, and this is likely the case wherever violence came from “demonstrators.” The movement was clear from beginning to end that its members wanted no part of violent actions.

By suppressed, I assume they mean what are commonly called “silencers.” This was a completely ignored issue in the Kennedy assassination, where the audio evidence pointed to six (6) shots, two from the direction of the Depository, two from the direction of the “Grassy Knoll,” and two uninvestigated. And no one bothered to even suggest that there might have been silencers in use that would have allowed many more shots to have been fired. But what is really interesting is that there are apparently still psychopaths living in Texas who think that the solution to a “problem” is to murder it.

It dawned on me (a “television baby”) a couple of years ago that things were not just merely corrupt, but that I have been living in an Oligarch’s world of their making. I’ve been an ant on their ant farm. The extremely wealthy of the planet control almost all aspects of our lives.

Just as with everything else in the country, some are “more equal” than others. The guy who protested in kid’s chalk in front of the bastard B of A banks is likely to rot in prison for several years while cold-blooded mercenaries conspire/operate (Michael Hastings) with impunity.

Actually, he was acquitted. I tweeted about it tonight. And for the trolls looking to spout their anti-occupy garbage, tune in to Occupy The Microphone every workday at 5 PM East Coast Time on WOLI or online at http://www.OccupyTheMicrophone.com, and if you think you can match wits, give us a call. We’d love to hear from you.

I am understanding this right–if one has a lot of money they would not be protesting ergo those that do are fair game if an excuse can be manufactured? Maybe protesting is no longer legal in the US anymore and other more domestic withdrawals should be explored.

I hope Russ looks into Hastings death because there’s more there. How in the world does this guy with a camera on his bumper just happen to catch Hastings drive by at 4 in the morning https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNhqKRugk8Q

No wonder I’ve been watching all the Bourne movies again! The ‘Ultimatum’ movie seems particularly relevant as the Guardian news reporter is killed in the middle of Waterloo station by a sniper as he has discovered a deep secret of the CIA….which is American citizens can be killed if deemed ‘necessary’ by said agency…can I get a refund on this reality and get into another movie/book reality? Elves and Unicorns perhaps?.

as someone who attended and helped organize Occupy Houston for the first 4-6 weeks, this is pretty creepy, though I knew dirty tricks came with the territory. I had sneaking suspicions that at least one guy there for the first week, who never came back for any of the direct actions, was military intelligence, and wouldn’t be surprised if the ‘Black Panthers’ that tried to disrupt the first few meetings weren’t some kind of FBI provocateurs. if not so scary, it would almost be laughable how worried the corporate oligarchy was over a group of people who couldn’t agree what fuckin’ signs to make, much less actually overthrow the federal government.

Actually, the gentleman walking past in one of the “three tramps” photos has been identified by both Col. Fletcher Prouty and Gen. Victor Krulak as Ed Lansdale, then lately of the CIA, though technically a general in the air force, whose job had been to overthrow foreign governments the CIA didn’t like. That he was no longer technically working for them would have had given them plausible deniability.

I still don’t get what Hunt was supposed to have done. Even if he were there, with the big cheese running things, his duties would have been further down on the food chain, though I can certainly see him inflating his importance.

I think you missed the whole article. The FBI knew of a credible plot, one that, judging from the official tone of the language used “if deemed necessary,” “exploitation”, “received intelligence,” and “gather intelligence through photo surveillance”, not to mention “exploitation” of the Occupy movement opportunity, etc., was being planned by some official or quasi-official group, and yet it did not make any arrests, did not (If Houston Police are to be believed) alert the Houston Police responsible for protecting Houston citizens, including protesters, from death threats, did not alert potential targets among the Occupy leaders, and has to this day, two years later, done nothing to arrest the plotters. When you look at the hairbrained plots that have been busted and bragged about to the media, this lack of any bust is beyond suspicious — it would appear to be part of a conspiracy, frankly.

Also, as Russ carefully documents in his “Family of Secrets”, a fair number of virulently anti-communist “white Russians” emigrated to the USA in the first half of the twentieth century and proved quite useful to the FBI and CIA, etc.

I have also heard rumors of some kind of event that may happen around the 4th of July holiday. @Anakis, you are right that the situation has been set up perfectly and since we are now questioning information about the NSA and why they are doing what they are doing…. It would be to convenient for something to happen so they can say ‘see, this is needed’! However, we should then ask – with all this snooping and spying, shouldn’t you have been able to catch and stop ‘said’ event? Obviously you are incompetent even with all the tools at your disposal and we are going to shut you down…. But, we will see. As for the ‘murder plot’, if you or I had planned such an event, be assured we would be arrested, committed for a mental eval, loose access to our guns, and end up spending thousands on legal representation…

What we are talking about here is conspiracy to commit murder, and the chief federal law enforcement agency having possession of evidence of a conspiracy to commit murder and failing to act, which is itself a crime. Where is the fucking lawsuit against the FBI?

Why do I have this gut feeling of a false flag event on or about 7/4. May or may not be related to Restore the Fourth events that are planned. Obama is in Africa, and out of the picture. With all of the psycobabble coming out of Wash DC, how NSA leaks are leaving us vulnerable to attacks, I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m just putting my thoughts out here, and they may be farfetched.

They got away with 9/11 so the rest is like taking candy from a baby. The American Idiots bought it hook, line and sinker so the false flag monsters have a very low threshold to deceive the idiots from now on.

Feralbarncat: In the ‘Through the Looking Glass’ world we now occupy, the Al Qaeda is just a ‘front’ group of patsies..Do you really think Hani Hanjour ‘flew’ that ‘plane’ (no crash evidence of a plane at the scene-at least not a giant Boeing) into the newly remodeled and nearly empty wing of the Pentagon, making a 270 degree turn to do so when rumsfield was in the opposite (West) of building and descending from 9,000 feet to fly less than 60 feet above ground for almost half a mile..through a bunch of tall light poles? If so, I have a bridge to sell cheap.

We now know FBI agents helped assassinate President Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Taxpayers still allow Congress to fund this Death Squad posing as a law enforcement agency.

Look at the riots in Brazil over Police Corruption. To view over 300 pages of material dealing with crimes committed by FBI agents visit the Data Dump at rigorousintuition.ca To create a volunteer civilian police review board with subpoena powers in your community see http://www.berkeleycopwatch.org/

thank you lois for the link, i had no idea there was a data dump, i am going to repost that data on my website, and thank you dave lindorf, this is such vital information to get out, especially at this moment in history, i am re-posting an excerpt of this (your) article on my website with your permission.

Sure, that’s what everyone should do. Spread the word. We need to let everyone know what kind of a government we have, that equates civil protest actions with “terrorism” and thinks killing leaders is appropriate.

It’s been like this for decades. FBI and local police agencies treat activists for social and economic justice as dangerous “subversives” to be detained, manipulated, harassed, framed, smeared, or killed. The late, great independent Chicago corruption-fighter and investigator Sherman Skolnick routinely denounced the FBI (and CIA) as “America’s secret political police.” The FBI maintained (and maybe still does) a “security index” of people who were to be to be arrested and placed in preventive detention in the event of some national “emergency.” J. Edgar Hoover launched a vendetta against the University of California when he discovered that a 1959 admission application included the following essay question: “What are the dangers to a democracy of a national police organization, like the FBI, which operates secretly and is unresponsive to criticism?” Still a reasonable question.

No, I think, anybody even cursory familiar with the history of the FBI and, more generally, of this whole country, would be shocked to learn that FBI had this information and DID intervene on the side of the protesters. To less degree – perhaps not shocked, but only slightly surprised – to learn that it was not the FBI itself, or at least that the plot was not coordinated with the FBI.

One more thing, certainly it’s at LEAST “fascism”, do you think it’s something more than that? And what does one call it? While sometimes labels can be unproductive, maybe worse, but one must name a thing to fight a thing yeah? I think about this. I don’t really know what we’re seeing.

And to Mr. Baker and friends, thank you. I hope to support the site with more than words very soon. There’s no other site quite like this- actual meaningful in-depth investigative journalism, unafraid of any topic or issue, probing where others won’t even tread, unencumbered by partisan concerns or ideology. Also the site is gorgeous. Well designed i appreciate that.